Gobikes125 Review

Bought a refurbished gen1 engine for my 2011 Yamaha R125 from gobikes125. Battled through a small problem with delivery, which was the fault of UPS and the harsh snow spell we had. More than made up for with the quality of the engine, and amazing support provided over text/phone saving us and helping us to install and adjust the engine. Overall great service and a standout business ran by Sylvia and Raymond.

Highly recommend.

Still running good? I`ve ordered one myself and it should be here soon. How did you do the service intervals? Do you do it at a Yamaha dealer or yourself? How many miles did you run it in on?

I guess I can give a "fresh" review on gobikes125.
They are absolutely great. SUPERB service, cheap shipping, good packing and securing the engine before shipment. Engine runs perfect, it also has to be ridden in for 1000km since it has new barrel, piston etc that needs to be run in. Sylvia is still in charge of paperwork, mails etc. Good service! No wonder why they have ZERO Neutral or Negative reviews on Ebay. all 4746 reviews are 100% positive.

Here is a REAL 2020 UPDATED REVIEW.

I messaged Sylvia via eBay. No reply so seen her number. I text her. A day later she rang my phone. She sounded very genuine and seemed to know what she was talking about. At first I was hesitant to place the order as it didn’t seem right to send my engine in return for another and to pay £450. Anyway so a day later I placed an order. “ on 03/07/20 “ as soon as she got the money, replies got more distant. I got told her Internet was striked out by bad weather. In Devon? Ok. Seemed a little strange to me! Again. No replies from her. The next time she replied to me the reason was all her 12 children came to visit her house. Anyway. I get a phone call finally on 7/7/20 my engine will be posted out 8/7/20 or 8/7/20. Brilliant I thought. I was relieved thinking I haven’t been scammed. Now it’s 8/7/20 at 22:15. I’ve had no reply again. I’m giving up. I belive I have been scammed and this has been a horrible experience.. I will contact my bank for fraud, ( she’s with Santander) “ go bikes “ so hopefully I can get myself a refund and her account closed. I wish I had placed the order via eBay maybe I would have had a differsnt experince with them. But I seems because I went to her personally she is taking the p**s. Will update if anything changes.

yikes, that's a shame to hear. I was toying with the idea of getting a motor from there as the best possible tuning starting point but maybe better doing the rebuild myself.

So are you still without a working bike?

gobikes125 on ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223489110518 its seems to be a scam of some sort.

My experience:
I messaged Sylvia via eBay about the engine and no reply for over a week, so I called her, no answer. 2 days later she called me and tried her best to sell me the engine outside of ebay (£25 cheaper if I got the engine straight from them and not via ebay) and really over sold the engine, "its show bike finish", "family business who takes pride in their work" and "Engine been built to Yamaha spec". Sylvia said on the phone she would email all the details about the specific engine I was getting, what parts had been used etc. She sent me a picture via Whatsapp of the engine and said it was ready to ship. Engine looked really good on the pics almost like new, all sounds good right? I had a funny feeling because she really wanted to sell the engine outside ebay so I placed my order via ebay to be safe, I'm so glad I did. I never got the email about the engine specs and it's definitely not to Yamaha specs unless yamaha started using cheap parts. Clylinder block is 5yp00 135cm3 https://shopee.co.id/CYLINDER-BLOK-...Y-1001-JAPAN-TECHNOLOGY-i.11027702.1538572639 I'm not sure but I'm guessing 135cm3 is going to cause problems over time without remapping the bike as these engines already run lean because of emissions.
The finish is so bad, it looks like a kid painted the engine, no prep work at all!! They painted over dirt and corrosion so the paint is already peeling off and because they didn't prep before paint you can scratch the paint off without effort with your finger nail, it just peels off. It looked nothing like the pics she sent me so I didn't get the engine she said I was getting. The package was disgusting, packed with rubbish, old pop bottles and bits of used mattress that stunk.

Does seem like they have had a lot of happy customers in the past but as of late looking at the ebay reviews and reading on here its seems like gobikes125 has gone down hill. £25 is the what ebay charge for the sale so they won't lose any money so them trying to sell the engine outside of ebay only proves that they are up to no good imo.

Hope this helps future buyers.

That sucks dude. Does the engine run and sound ok at least?

I was curious what they do about things like the timing chain and suchlike (just bc this has been an area of concern on mine). Presumably they put a new one on which if you're going by the book means new top and bottom drive gears too. Bottom gear is part of the crank which retails at £~400 and isn't available anymore (well it's listed as not availabke in the Motorcyclespareparts.eu catalogue - part 1 here: https://www.motorcyclespareparts.eu/en/yamaha-parts/2008-yzf-r125-motorcycles/crankshaft-piston). Even if it was available, at say 50% off for soem magical trade deal that's still nearly half the total sale price of the motor, before anyone's lifted a finger to make it work.

So if that's the case what are they doing - 1) not touching the timing chain at all (nope!), 2) just swapping the chain but not the top/bottom gear (also nope, maybe for a private rebuild but not really acceptable on a "new/recon motor") or 3) something else magical which somehow replaces all the bits which should be replaced but still comes in at around £500? I don't see how but I'd genuinely love to know so that I can do the same.

Also if you look at a full bearing set for this motor that's another £150 or so (https://maximumracingconcept.com/pr...-yzf-r15-complete-engine-bearings-high-speed/). Are you telling me that they manage to replace timing chain (£40), top and bottom gears (£?+£400?), and a set of new bearings and whatever else is needed to make it run, plus labour for £500 and still turn a profit? I don't see how. I really would like to think there's something I'm missing but I don't see how it's doable (properly) to even do it at cost for that price.

Ofc maybe they just slap a couple of new bits on to make it run and then rely on the warranty being expired by the time it breaks? who knows.